My Biggest Fuckup on Production
Fuckup. Who doesn't have one?
My biggest one was related with an issue I found on Production system. To fix it, I wrote a PL/SQL function on Test instance, tested it and proceed with implementation on Production. As it was time when git didn't exist yet, and nobody from my team used branching in svn where many changes where in the development phase1, I had to implement it manually to Production by editing a PL/SQL Package on live system.
I don't remember the details but I copied the function body without the return statement. What is even more amazing, the package compiled without issues.
I finished my shift, went home and forget about it. At the evening my boss called me, scolded me and ended the call without telling what is happening. Not a single word of explanation.
Next day, I got some scraps of the information about the whole situation. Even now, after those 8 or 9 years, I don't know if it had some major impact on the application or the services.
What I have learned from this fuckup is that no matter how bad you screw things up, the person who is responsible for it should be informed what went wrong, how it was fixed and what impact it had. More, the best would be to let him fix it by himself, with the help of someone else, if needed. Only this way one is able to lear from the failure. This builds confidence and courage to solve issues in the future.
1Someday, I will write about the stupid release process I had to deal with at that company.